Dickens's Christmas Books - complete online versions

The Christmas Carol, The Chimes, Cricket On the Hearth, Battle Of Life
& The Haunted Man & the Ghosts's Bargain with Illustrations.

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THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
183
She was, out and out, the very best filler of a pipe, I should say, in the four quarters of the globe. To see her put that chubby little finger in the bowl, and then blow down the pipe to clear the tube; and, when she had done so, affect to think that there was really something in the tube, and blow a dozen times, and hold it to her eye like a telescope, with a most provoking twist in her capital little face, as she looked down it; was quite a brilliant
thing. As to the tobacco, she
was perfect mistress of the sub­ject; and her lighting of the pipe, with a wisp of paper, when the Carrier had it in his
mouth going so very near his nose, and yet not scorching it —was Art: high Art, Sir.
And the Cricket and the Kettle, turning up again, ac­knowledged it! The bright fire, blazing up again, ac­knowledged it! The little Mower on the clock, in his unheeded work, acknow­ledged it! The Carrier, in his smoothing forehead and expanding face, acknowledged it, the readiest of all.
And as he soberly and thoughtfully puffed at his old pipe ; and as the Dutch clock ticked; and as the red fire gleamed; and as the Cricket chirped; that Genius of his Hearth and Home (for such the Cricket was) came out, in fairy shape, into the room, and summoned many forms of Home about him. Dots of all ages,
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